St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1887-01-08
HARML sSS THIEVES.

American Plxtocrats Who Appropriate the
Coats-of-Arms of English Nobility.
It is not generally known, but it is
nevertheless a fact that every large
carriage manufacturing establishment:
in this country has a library. The
works of only two authors are in this
library, and these are the productions
of Mr.. Burke and Mr.. Lodge. Burke's
"Peerage and Baronetage, Lodges
book of the same title, and Burke's
General Armory' are all that are
needed, but they are indispensable.
A man on whom fortune has smiled
is having a carriage built. 1t is to be
heavy numbering affair, and guaran-
teed to have look of ancient respect
ability about it before it comes out of
intended to have his cipher on the
panels, but the ladies of the family are
more ambitious and keep at him until,
in moment of weakness, he consents
to decorate his family carriage with a
coat-of-arms. The next question is
how to get one. Heretofore he and his
ancestors have struggled along with
out armorial bearings and never espec-
tally felt the need of them. But now
things are changed. If he lived in
Brazil he would endow a hospital, and
the Emperor would make him a baron
with a coat-of-arms of great complexi-
ty. If he were an Englishman, he
might do hundred things less expen-
siye and get pedigree and coat-of-
arms from the College of Heralds and
write Sir before his name. But being
an American, there is no way for him
to get a coat-of-arms except to steal
it, and so the respectable old gentle
man is driven to the first theft of his
life. The New York College of Her
aldry being no longer in existence, he
confdes in the carriage manufacturer
The carriage man brings out his
library and in the seclusion of his pri-
yate office the coat-of-arms of some
more or less noble lord is APP
propriated. to be subsequently
transferred to the rich mans
family coach. These people are rather
particular about their arms when they
once get started in the selection. Say,
4OI LJdI LIlC lidII W ~ w anus
q coat-of-arms is named Smith. The
carriage man opens his heraldric record
and reads: Smith. Edward Augustus
Patrick Peter, First Baronet of Mud
towne, County Kerry. Ireland mo,
no. says the rich man. ''Our family
are English by descent"
A few more pages are turned over
and then under, menagerie of herald
ric animals the carriage manufacturer
reads: ''Billingsgate. Marquis of
(Smith-Fitz Plantagenet). James Au-
gustus Douglas George, Marquis and
Earl Baron Smith, of County of York.
The Marquis assumed in 1876 by royal
license the additional surname of Fitz
Plantagenet for himself and his issue
and quartered the Plantagenet arms
with his own"
.'Ah! that must be the one,' says the
seeker after a coat-of-arms. 81 have
heard that our family came from York
shire.
And so the arms of the Marquis Of
Billingsgate blaze on the panels of the
new carriage when it rolls along the
avenue.
Appropriations of coats-of-arms would
make themselves less absurd il
they would read a rudimentary book
on heraldry before they made the APP
preparation. For instance, Mr.. Smith,
in appropriating the coat-of-arms of
the Most Honorable the Marquis of
Billingsgate, takes not only the arms
of Smith, but the arms of Fitz Planta-
genet and likewise the supporters
which can only be used by Peer of
the Realm He surmounts the whole
with the cap and coronet of Marquis,
and any one versed in such matters
would suppose that Peer was riding
in the carriage instead of plain Mr..
Smith. Now, if Mr.. Smith did really
belong to the family of the Marquis, as
he did not, he would be entitled only
to the arms of Smith, without the coro-
net, the supporters or the motto.-I.
7. Tribune.